Ah, summer! Just a week after the last blast of winter, (after a postponement) we really enjoyed the full-summer camping weekend in the Drumheller valley. In this country, you need to enjoy any summer day to the full, because it may be “all there is.”And enjoy we did. We arrived on Friday, just experiencing some light thundershower activity. To our surprise, Drumheller is suffering a severe drought. The prairie grass is as dead as winter (but the green grass was waist high along the river in the trees) and the Red Deer River is crystal clear and very low. People were sitting on lawn chairs in the river, fishing from the middle, and splashing around. I have never before seen the river anything but muddy.

After a nice evening fire and a good night’s sleep, we headed to Horse Thief Canyon for a hike, taking morning and afternoon cruises on the historic Bleriot Ferry. We followed a ridge down into the river valley, where we lounged for a leisurely lunch, and found the same route back. It was hot (30 degrees) in the arroyos, but quite tolerable on the slightly breezy ridges.

The coordinator provided ice cream for the crew at the top of the hill.

After a fabulous pot luck wiener roast, and another good night’s sleep, we headed for some pleasant hiking along the river valley from Drumheller to the Tyrell Museum. Some opted for lazing in lawn chairs in the shade for the second half of the hike, when the temperature hit 31 degrees.

Wildlife seen: deer, cottontail rabbit, garter snake, and cheeky Richardson’s ground squirrels, who “Hoovered” up our crumbs.

Some of us finished off with the buffet at the Good N’ Plenty at Carbon.

Participants: Dorothy (thanks for the photos), Maurice, Frank, Jay, Eric, Shirley, Ken, Del and Carl, coordinator and scribe.